Information Antharion, New Indie Turn-based RPG on Kickstarter

[OSK]

I want to hear more about the combat. That'll make or break a game like this.

 

[quasimodo]

I better the TB combat the less I care about anything else. KotC is the best game I have played in the last few years.

ajrs84 Have you played Knights of the Chalice? If so what did you think of it?

 

[Jarpie]

Just updated the Kickstarter with a lot more info about the game ...people were complaining about its bareness.

Shadows for the players are first on my list of things to add.

I'll definitely make some longer videos once I get a chance.

What are your main inspirations combatwise and what do you consider as strong combat?

Pool of Radiance, The early Ultimas, even the early spiderweb games (though I wouldn't exactly describe Antharion as a spiderweb knockoff). Not that they were the greatest implementations or anything, I just generally like the way combat flows in those games.

And just for the record, I never actually rode any zamboni.

Have you tried to remove the white outlines from the characters to test how they look then? Don't take my comments too harshly, I'm just old grumpy lolrus who's bukkit has been stolen but that's how we all are in 'Codex.

 

[MisterStone]

Sounds like a good idea. Hope it turns out to be like Exile but w/ more character development and combat options.

 

[Roguey]

Hey wait I have a new complaint.

I watched the video and I have an issue with these lines:

have they yet sent you for my life?

The yet is redundant. Don't try to make fantasy-style speech by adding redundant words please.

I have family - a very wealthy family whom would pay for my timely release.

The family is the subject so this should be who. A very wealthy family who would pay for my timely release. The lore isn't inspiring, the grammar less so. Don't even get me started on the "pet a puppy/kill a puppy" set-up when it comes to choices.

 

[ajrs84]

We're definitely considering a linux port - as it is, there are a million and one things to do, however, if we surpass our goal by even a modest amount a linux port would be quite reasonable to expect.

The player shadows won't be dynamic because at least one player will often have a light source attached to him and this creates weird lighting situations. I'll most likely go with drop shadows/shadows maps against the ground plane, but not blobs.

In regards to the current list of spells - these are just the spells we have working in-game, we're almost sure to add more once we ramp up balancing.

Nobody wants to play in a huge world were everything is repeating and the dungeons are tiny and suck. We're going out of our way to create as many unique environments, monsters, dungeons, NPCs, and quests as possible. We currently have 20-25ish+ unique monsters but will keep adding more until we get to 50 or so. There is absolutely no trade off between the number of dungeons and size/quality. If anything people will probably complain that they're too big or complex, but never that they all look identical or have the same monsters. Dungeons are scattered around the world and many of them you'll never even find. I want to stress that Antharion rewards exploration.

One feature I forgot to mention was the ability to control walking speed, or how fast you move from tile to tile. I played Eschalon I and II book but couldn't finish them because of the walking speed.

I tested 3- 6 party members and 4 seemed to be the magic number, at least for this game (I originally wanted 6). Add more and the combat doesn't flow as well; take one away and you loose a lot in terms of tactical complexity.

KotC's combat is really great. The interface, on the other hand, is another story.

The white outline just shows you who the active player is in combat (I'll probably remove it out of combat).

 

[Jarpie]

We're definitely considering a linux port - as it is, there are a million and one things to do, however, if we surpass our goal by even a modest amount a linux port would be quite reasonable to expect.

The player shadows won't be dynamic because at least one player will often have a light source attached to him and this creates weird lighting situations. I'll most likely go with drop shadows/shadows maps against the ground plane, but not blobs.

In regards to the current list of spells - these are just the spells we have working in-game, we're almost sure to add more once we ramp up balancing.

Nobody wants to play in a huge world were everything is repeating and the dungeons are tiny and suck. We're going out of our way to create as many unique environments, monsters, dungeons, NPCs, and quests as possible. We currently have 20-25ish+ unique monsters but will keep adding more until we get to 50 or so. There is absolutely no trade off between the number of dungeons and size/quality. If anything people will probably complain that they're too big or complex, but never that they all look identical or have the same monsters. Dungeons are scattered around the world and many of them you'll never even find. I want to stress that Antharion rewards exploration.

One feature I forgot to mention was the ability to control walking speed, or how fast you move from tile to tile. I played Eschalon I and II book but couldn't finish them because of the walking speed.

I tested 3- 6 party members and 4 seemed to be the magic number, at least for this game (I originally wanted 6). Add more and the combat doesn't flow as well; take one away and you loose a lot in terms of tactical complexity.

KotC's combat is really great. The interface, on the other hand, is another story.

The white outline just shows you who the active player is in combat (I'll probably remove it out of combat).

Pledged with 15 buckaroos so far. I hope you have checked on how much manufacturing physical rewards cost and how much their shipping will cost so you wont end up paying too much for them.

 

[visions]

There is absolutely no trade off between the number of dungeons and size/quality. If anything people will probably complain that they're too big or complex, but never that they all look identical or have the same monsters. Dungeons are scattered around the world and many of them you'll never even find. I want to stress that Antharion rewards exploration.

I am beginning to like what I am reading.

 

[Kosmonaut]

Pledged 15 bucks. I'm willing to up my pledge, but it depends of how much information we get about some things, like combat, character generation, etc.

 

[Saxon1974]

Looks very interesting me, I will probably pledge at least the 15$ level. My biggest problem is lack of walking animations...I cant play a game without it....its why I couldnt play most of the spiderweb games.

Read more about it, went ahead and pledged 15$ but I might increase my pledge if you add walking animations.

 

[Hirato]

just pledged $15 myself and I feel rather nervous.

The player shadows won't be dynamic because at least one player will often have a light source attached to him and this creates weird lighting situations. I'll most likely go with drop shadows/shadows maps against the ground plane, but not blobs.

It's not a very pronounced example, but it worked for Arcanum.

Anyways, I have a few questions.

You choose each character's race, class (or create your own custom class)

How do the custom classes work? Are there any penalties?

Is it like fallout's tag skills in which you choose the skills you're most proficient at and level up quickly?
Or is it like Din's Curse's hybrid class? This hybrid class allowed you to pick any two skill trees for your character and those two only, the actual classes gave you access to 3 fixed ones.

Now I'm curious about the leveling system too. The trailer would imply it's a standard you gain EXP to level or straight points to invest in your attributes, do these also apply to skills? Is it perhaps a hybrid level up, improve-by-use system like Wizardry 8?

Currently there are 9 skills including: ..... Mercantile .....

All 8 of the other skills are tailored for field use, so I'm wondering how Mercantile fits in.
Does it do more than affect the prices of items, or is it basically a dump skill like "barter" was in the first Fallout?

 

[ajrs84]

Antharion is basically classless. Yeah you can choose from a set of pre-fabs but I'm guessing most of you will opt to roll your own.

No penalties for classes but may add some advantage/disadvantages (beyond mere skills and attributes boosts/penalties) to the races. Also I'm working on a trait system kind of similar to the one in Daggerfall but we'll see how that balances.

Right now it's a standard gain EXP to level and straight point investments but I'm not married it.

And yeah mercantile affects item buy/sell prices.

I'm curious what you guys like to see as far as classes/skills/leveling?

 

[Mother Russia]

Antharion is basically classless. Yeah you can choose from a set of pre-fabs but I'm guessing most of you will opt to roll your own.

No penalties for classes but may add some advantage/disadvantages (beyond mere skills and attributes boosts/penalties) to the races. Also I'm working on a trait system kind of similar to the one in Daggerfall but we'll see how that balances.

Right now it's a standard gain EXP to level and straight point investments but I'm not married it.

And yeah mercantile affects item buy/sell prices.

I'm curious what you guys like to see as far as classes/skills/leveling?

I want feats/talents at level up. I also want a way to make fighters interesting by giving them some cool stuff to do, instead of just hacking away every round. Say cool fighting techniques, power attacks, dashing strike, etc etc.

Also, something cool that will allow us to make Paladins. And I don't just mean taking the easy way out and tacking on white magic on a fighter and calling him Paladin, I hope for smite, holy sword, etc etc type abilities.

 

[visions]

Some kind of feats/perks could be cool, yes, to give more variety to characters.

 

[Niektory]

Classless is good in my book.

How steep is the power curve? Some games give you a lot of stats as you level so a few levels mean a huge difference in power. Others are more moderate and only give small improvements. I usually prefer the latter approach, since it makes tactics more important than levels and allows wider range of challenges to be interesting at any stage of the game.

How are spells learned?

 

[Oasis]

Right now it's a standard gain EXP to level and straight point investments but I'm not married it.

Does this mean there are no feats in game currently?

I guess I just assumed feats for this game when I saw it. Perks/feats are always the most fun part of leveling IMO. The problem I have with games that use them is the user interface for them usually sucks, particularly when it comes to feats/perks that have requirements. It's not so bad in Fallout as the requirement is just you have to reach a certain level, but going for Whirlwind in a game that uses D&D feats can be confusing/annoying. Even Frayed Knights, which breaks the feats up logically, certain feats only show when you have the requirements for them and you don't always know that picking a certain feat is going to give you a new feat option next level to help improve that feat, etc. I think Skyrim almost got it right, I like my perks in tree form, the UI for it is just needlessly over-bloated.

 

[ajrs84]

Fighting options are something we're currently exploring very seriously and something that I personally would very much like to add.

The power curve is fairly moderate, in part because there's no level scaling of monsters or loot and we want to allow exploration style play.

Spells are purchased but in order to learn them you must have the required spell school skill level (and obviously enough mana to cast it via INT).

Feats/perks are something I've been thinking a lot about adding along with an alchemy and crafting system.

What would you guys like to see as far as perks/feats, crafting, and alchemy?

 

[Dyskolos]

Definitely alchemy, but only if you can can give it more value than the typical herb hide and seek for small/large health, mana, and poison potions. Something where certain player-crafted potions can have a tipping effect in the toughest fights but are available only in very limited amounts and/or bring long-term/permanent trade-offs for use. Maybe you destroy an otherwise useful unique item in the crafting of a rare potion or have a permanent stat effect, drop in resistances, etc. It's easier to give negative recommendations than anything else since it's not something that's been done too well in most games. In general I'd really just like potions to feel a viable tactical approach rather than a utilitarian dump skill to dodge dropping money in stores.

 

[FrancoTAU]

I like non combat skills in theory, but they seem to not matter because of a screwed up in game economy with too much money. It's nice in theory to have 20% off buying stuff, but does it matter when you have more money halfway through the game than you'll ever need. Than you have skills like alchemy that are more about amassing a fortune right from the beginning than being a continually useful skill to the end of the game.

Anyways, I like what I'm hearing so far so I pledged my $15 for now. I can be convinced to give a little more with some more game video.

 

[ajrs84]

Economy is very very important, and making sure that you never too much of a gold surplus is key ...this isn't so difficult though as there are 4 in your party and spells, arrows, etc. must be purchased so there should always be something to buy.

Permanent effect potions would be great as a reward for high alchemy skill (so long as the ingredients aren't too easy to find).

 

[Wizfall]

I like exploration style play better than characters' quest based in this kind of game so it's good.
I'm not worried at all by the limited animation and the graphics are quite good.
The only thing that bother me is the big heads, i really disliked those.
It's not a critic about your timing but it's funny to think that 1 year ago i would have pounce on this project, it's way harder to pledge now with all the "supposed" greats project already funded.
I will pledge latter though unless i really dislike your combat video.

 

[Saxon1974]

Dam looks like this might not get funded. Come on guys spend some jewgold to get this one funded. If this and ARS Magica dont get funded i will bad mad bros.

 

[Bulba]

come on guys, shell out some gold OR ELSE the won't be any antharion

 

[Metro]

If you guys relaunch I'd suggest dropping the game tier to $10. That's not my opinion of what your game is worth just an observation on the perception of the Kickstarter audience -- even the somewhat niche turn based RPG audience. Of course, ultimately a lot depends on how much coverage you get.

 

[Bulba]

I think rpgcodex was pretty much all the coverege they got.